Quilt Retreat Is Over

Exhausted, over stuffed, did I say exhausted??—but I am one happy quilter.  What a wonderful group of ladies this is—the Iron Maidens.  Let me explain the reason behind the name—as any quilter knows, you “press” your fabrics instead of “ironing.”  Ironing as if you were ironing your husband’s shirts stretches your fabrics resulting in not very square quilts.  Gently pressing your seams helps you get those nice, square quilts.  Thus we call ourselves the Iron Maidens, probably because the Pressing Maidens doesn’t sound as catchy!

Look what we woke up to this morning at quilt retreat:

About eight inches of heavy, wet snow which caused the power to flicker on and off making eleven very worried quilters—no power, no sewing machines!!  Thankfully the power never stayed off longer than just a few seconds.

The Medicine Flower Lodge is a perfect set up for a quilt retreat.  The resort has undergone changes since we were last there a year or so ago.  We’ve always used the downstairs meeting room of the main lodge for all our sewing activities.  We also utilized two bedrooms with baths upstairs in the main lodge for sleeping.  There is another cottage with three bedrooms and baths which we also used—those of us staying in this cottage had to navigate the dark night, possible bears, wolves, mountain lions, etc. in order to get back and forth to the lodge and our sewing machines.  

This year, the owners Pat and her husband Paul had moved out of their apartment in the lodge to another house on the property freeing up the entire lodge for our use.  They had installed very comfortable brand new queen size beds—there are seven bedrooms and four bathrooms in the lodge—a kitchen and two living areas—decks and a hot tub.  Mighty nice place to have a quilt retreat, family reunion or wedding!!  Catering is available through Pat’s daughter Terry—and boy can she cook!!  They serve us two meals per day, brunch at 10am and dinner at 5:30pm. 

Saturday we attended the quilt show and as usual the Red Lodge quilters put on quite the quilt display.  Here is just a small sampling of ones which caught my eye:

This little quilt was for display only, not part of the voting.  The attached note caught my eye—the owner of this quilt paid $10 at a garage sale for this little beauty!!

Each of these log cabins squares measured ONE INCH!!!

Mary F., our fearless leader hard at work.

Now for the Iron Maiden quilt show:

From the left, I can’t remember who made the little table runner, then Gay made the middle quilt and Linda the one on the right.

Roxie—isn’t this cute!Bette made this little winter scene.

Jeane, Jane and Donna made this quilt which due to the poorly written pattern went from being the Wild Rose quilt to the “pain in the rear Thorny Rose quilt.”  The fabric is gorgeous as is the design but come on pattern writers—have several people make your quilt before you publish your pattern!!

Sweet little toddler apron—that’s Mary F. hiding behind her creation!

Gay made the beautiful star quilt in Christmas fabrics.

Roxie made the beautiful panels quilt and there is Jane hiding behind her patriotic little twister quilt. 

I finished the Christmas door quilt, appliqueing all the pieces down yesterday and last night.  I started another quilt making great progress. 

Last night we also enjoyed our usual Chinese gift exchange—the first person opens a gift, the second person can either steal that same gift or open another one.  I had the good fortune to be the last person to choose and I chose to steal a present I had been keeping an eye on throughout all the stealing and hilarity—this sweet snowman pillow made by Mary F.

An awesome weekend spent with the best of friends!!